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Saudi Arabian News Updates |
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18 March 2009 JEDDAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled
Al-Faisal yesterday denounced propaganda by certain
westernized Muslims that Islam and Islamic values are
the reason for the backwardness of the community.
“Islam, on the contrary, is a religion of progress,
civilization, justice, equality and freedom,” the
governor told students and faculty members of King
Abdulaziz University while giving a lecture on Saudi
moderation.
“A Saudi youth nowadays finds himself caught between
two forms of extremism — each ideology tries to take
him to its side leaving him confused and in need of
knowing who he is and what his culture stands for,” he
said.
“Moderation is the way of life of a progressive Arab
Muslim. Society in this country firmly and confidently
says ‘no’ to extremism and westernization and ‘yes’ to
moderation in thinking, politics, economics and
culture,” he said.
Prince Khaled also announced a plan to establish an
academic chair — entitled Al-Faisal Chair for
Deepening Saudi Moderation — at the university.
The governor’s lecture was followed by a question and
answer session. “We are in a quick information age;
information is now vast, fast and accessible to anyone
... the world now seems small in this era of
information,” he said.
The lecture was part of a series of meetings and
discussions that Prince Khaled has been holding on a
regular basis since the start of the year. He
explained how Saudi moderation overcame and defeated
extremist ideologies since the time of King Abdul Aziz,
the founder of Saudi Arabia.
Prince Khaled has broached the idea of establishing a
cultural council in Makkah province to serve as one of
various development mechanisms, particularly to
promote moderate thinking.
Prince Khaled dwelt on the basic principles that mould
the character of the people of Saudi Arabia. These
principles, he said, did not come from the Kingdom’s
oil wealth but from Islam.
He said one of the most important aspects of
reformation programs in the region was to not just
build on the character of individuals but society as a
whole. |
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